The Best Pop-Up Bars In London This September

Summer is winding down, the rain has arrived, and everybody’s mood is heading south for the Winter; now is definitely the time for a little pick-me-up if ever there was one. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up the best of the coming month’s pop-up bars and drinks events across London, from Tiki takeovers to Breaking Bad-themed cocktail labs, there is even a Chilean wine festival on the list!

Twilight Cocktail Cruise from Alfred Le Roy

📅 Limited dates throughout September

Make the most of these last days of summer with a booze cruise aboard a classic canal boat. Setting off from the edge of the Olympic Park in Hackney Wick, the two-and-a-half-hour journey takes you through the Lee Valley Park to Springfield Park, or to Limehouse Basin and back, via the Olympic Stadium, beneath a retractable roof suited for both sunny and wet days. Cocktails are the main event, both classic and speciality, while the bar is also well stocked with prosecco, wines, craft beers, ciders and spirits. Choose between standard ‘cruise-cocktail’ tickets or enjoy a sharing delicatessen spread for two with a ‘cruise-cocktail-dine’ ticket. Night cruises are also available on selected dates.

Tiki Bordel at Joyeux Bordel

📅 Until Tuesday, 13th September

This dim-lit, low-seated, cosy Shoreditch cocktail bar has undergone a Caribbean-cum-Jamaican-cum-Hawaiian makeover, courtesy of Cheeky Tiki. Until the 13th of September, this popular offshoot of the Experimental Cocktail Club, famed for its vintage sound system and heavy vinyl focus, will be providing a tropical paradise in the heart of East London. Lounge in a hammock beneath a banana tree, surrounded by floral wallpaper and palm matting, while sipping on delicious rum cocktails with a dose of ECC flair.

Garden Variety Bar at Geffrye Museum

📅 Friday 16th – Saturday 17th September

Throughout summer, Hoxton’s Geffrye Museum has been playing host to a series of residencies from creative London-based bartenders, with specially-created drinks inspired by, and using herbs and flowers taken from, the museum’s period gardens, complemented by a paired selection of curated foods from restaurateurs. This month it’s the turn of Gimlet, specialists in the eponymous ‘short and sour cocktail made with Navy Strength Gin, homemade lime syrup and fresh lime juice’. Sip your drink in the serene garden surroundings or have a go at some classic garden games.

Bejewelled Cocktail Masterclass at Christabel’s

📅 Saturday, 17th September

Purveyors of unique theme parties and quirky supper clubs, Christabel’s have a treat in store for cocktail lovers this September. After a ‘pimped up’ glass of prosecco on arrival, spend the evening learning to mix two of Christabel’s trademark cocktails before beautifying your creations with edible decorations: glitter, sequins, jewels and flowers. If that’s not enough DIY fun for you, you can also construct your own canapes to go with them.

📍Secret Location in N1

Image courtesy of Christabel’s

Mercado Chileno with Old Truman Brewery

📅 Tuesday, 13th September

For one night only, the taste of Chile takes over East London’s Old Truman Brewery with Mercado Chileno, the largest annual gathering of Chilean wine producers in the Northern hemisphere. Sample over 400 wines from 50 producers (free samples from every stall!) or head to the Waqar Pisco Cocktail Bar, listen to music in the Market Square and sample some of the South American nation’s delicious cuisine.

ABQ

📅 Wednesday – Sunday throughout September

Fresh from a sell-out, three-month stint in Paris, Breaking Bad-themed pop-up bar ABQ are back on their home side of the Channel. Step inside their RV-cum-meth-lab for your cooking sesh, don the customary yellow boiler suit and gas mask, and get to work on two very sciencey cocktails; Blue Fynn and Saul’s C2H60 made ‘using molecular mixology techniques’. The lab is fully kitted-out with all the necessary bells and whistles, with plenty of ‘acids’, beakers, tubes and dry ice. Science, YO.